Fleet Management

Volvo Trucks, Telogis Inc.

A suite of fleet management applications can now be factory installed on new trucks from Volvo Trucks under a partnership between the truck maker and Telogis.

Volvo has been equipping trucks with the company’s telematics hardware since 2001, according to Magnus Koeck, Volvo vice president, marketing and brand management. Speaking during a webinar July 15 to outline details of the partnership, Koeck said there were more than 60,000 vehicles on the road in North America already equipped with connected vehicle hardware.

Conal Deedy, Volvo Trucks director commercial vehicle sales, said the company has been offering remote diagnostics capabilities via its telematics platform that allows customers to see in real time critical fault alerts and automatically arrange for vehicle repairs. With the Telogis partnership, the company is using the same connectivity to deliver Telogis fleet management applications.

Noting that “trucks run on fuel, trucking companies run on data,” Deedy said the partnership gives customers a simplified fleet management option, with no extra hardware to buy or install. Using the hardware already standard on Volvo trucks, he said customers can subscribe to Telogis fleet management applications such as hours-of-service reporting, commercial navigation, automated driver vehicle inspection reports, IFTA reporting, route compliance and real-time navigation updates. Deedy said the company had not been able to offer these services to the customer direct from the factory until now.

He said that for the customer, this means no in-vehicle hardware -- plus the customer has choices since the hardware supports multiple service providers. Another benefit of the partnership is that customers can finance the Telogis applications along with the truck purchase.

The Telogis applications will be available in three bundles, according to Erin Cave, vice president product management, Telogis.

• One bundle will include Telogis compliance and navigation products such as automated hours-of-service recording/reporting, automated DVIRs and real-time commercial navigation. Cave said the navigation component includes dynamic updating of the road network using feedback from the more than 130,000 drivers using their products. The navigation also includes a route overview page, junction view and lane guidance.

• The second bundle features Telogis Fleet, the company's advanced fleet management product that includes a number of business analytic applications.

• A third bundle combines the first two.

The products can be purchased on a 1-, 3- or 5-year subscription basis that will be "competitively priced," Cave said.

The apps can run on a variety of mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, with the company taking a “bring-your-own-device” approach on the hardware side.

The Telogis products can be ordered now on new truck orders and will be available for existing trucks already equipped with Volvo telematics on Sept. 1.